10.06.2025. Since 1986 on the Road
Hello dear Friends,
“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place—or not to bother.”
― Jane Goodall
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She was legendary. She was a female phenomenon. She was my go-to living female rockstar (my want-to-be-when-I-grow-up, childhood hero). She was a reason for hope. She was devoted to humanity, to kindness, to a bone-deep conviction that human cruelty was acquired and that the sacred, "an unseen, intangible Wind," was everywhere. She could rock long, white-gold hair like no other and fill a room—even a YouTube video—with the transmission of goodness and compassion to rival that of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Whenever I’m having a personal or collective "bad" day—needing a humanity boost, needing a "don’t give up" on myself or others boost—it is her that I pull up; even just a photo will do.
Jane Goodall passed away last Wednesday, October 1, 2025, at 91 years old. Up to the moment of her death, she was doing her part, speaking and traveling. She was in California, preparing for a talk she was scheduled to give on Friday, October 3, at UCLA, offering her dharma to the world—living out her life as my meditation teacher would often advise: “As long as there is breath in my body, I will be doing the work of waking up.”
That is exactly what Jane Goodall—perhaps considered a mystic of our day—was doing: offering hope, offering her life-breath to adding ‘better’ to this human kinship-place.
Did you hear about her Netflix documentary-interview, which was only to be released after her death?
Interviewer Brad Falchuk asks, "What message do you want to leave?"
Jane replies, "In the place where I am now, I look back over my life. I look back at the world I’ve left behind. What message do I want to leave?"
“I want to make sure that you all understand that each and every one of you has a role to play. You may not know it. You may not find it. But your life matters, and you are here for a reason. And I just hope that that reason will become apparent as you live through your life.
“I want you to know that, whether or not you'd find that role that you're supposed to play, your life does matter and that every single day you live, you make a difference in the world. And, you get to choose the difference that you make. I want you to understand that. We're part of the natural world and even today, where the planet is dark, there still is hope.”
to continue reading, scroll below….🍃
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.”
– Mother Teresa
Come Join Me Today *
We will begin our time with Calm-Abiding Meditation followed by a Metta Meditation Practice
Drop-in Meditation Monday
All are welcome; no prior experience is needed—just bring an open heart.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Guided 7-pt Posture & Metta Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations on the Practice of Meditation
* New Temporary Location: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 114, Northfield, IL
Donations are gratefully accepted.
Closing here with heart beats of gratitude,
Love, Wini
Scroll below: Holy goodness between. Made with ♥️.
💌 Know someone who needs a little goodness for their heart? Please share! If this was forwarded to you, subscribe for your own copy
🌸 Two Poems
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES | Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
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Perhaps you are like me and have heard this poem a few times.
Perhaps you too, like me, could hear it a million and one times.
Each time a different transmission, each time a different word
becoming a prayer, saving you from despair.
Each time, a beating yes, yes—
“and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”
Each time, a sincere heart press—may I remember a little longer this time.
🍃Listen to Mary Oliver read When I Am Among the Trees
Because a Redwood Grove | Joe Cottonwood
because naturally upon entering
you lower your voice
because through branches on high
fluffs of fog drift
in shafts of sunlight
because you've met this feeling
in cathedral, mosque, temple
because a redwood seems always
to know what it's doing
because your body feels small
because your spirit grows large
because a redwood with its power
will never preach
makes no demands
sips from the clouds
swallows the sunlight
shelters the chipmunk, the owl, you
because a redwood takes the long view
because the redwood withstands flame
has kinship to stone, to river and earth
to the patience of stars
to the holy
because you forgot the question
but a redwood grove
is the answer
🌸 Three Quotes | Aurora Levins Morales. Chelan Harkin. Margaret Renkl.
“What matters is that the world is in great danger from runaway greed. The only thing that can stop it is large numbers of people becoming able to imagine and then create something better.” — Aurora Levins Morales
“It’s when the earth shakes and foundations crumble that our light is called to rise up.”
–Chelan Harkin
“Apocolyptic stories always get the apocalypse wrong. The tragedy is not the failed world’s barren ugliness. The tragedy is its clinging beauty even as it fails. Until the very last cricket falls silent, the beauty-bestowed will find a reason to love the world.” — Margaret Renkl,
🍃 Perhaps you have read The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl? It is a book that I find myself rereading, opening to a random page like a poetry book, falling into the pages to find a quote that shimmers. Where pages and words come alive as if I am standing with Margaret Renkl in her backyard, or the two of us looking out from her kitchen window, quiet, eyes and heart perched observing the unfolding world. Or, as if we are two friends, walking and talking, stomping through fall’s wet, crunchy leaves together, bearing witness to the world–it is a book I thought you may find solace and refuge in too, pages of remembering we belong to one another.
“What if resting, all by itself, is the real act of holiness? What if honoring the gift of our only life in this gorgeous world means taking time every week to slow down? To sleep? To breathe? The natural world has never needed us more than it needs us now, but we can’t be of much use to it if we remain in a perpetual state of exhaustion and despair.”
— Margaret Renkl
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🌸 Something to Watch 📺 | Famous Last Words: A Message From Dr. Jane Goodall
“In the place where I am now, I look back over my life. What message do I want to leave?”
– Jane Goodall
Who would Jane Goodall say she was? Listen in her words: A short clip here.
This life inspiring interview was done earlier this year in March, and it was agreed upon that it would not be released until after her death, whenever that would be. Be inspired, listen here. A short good-to-read written section here from the film:
“Don’t lose hope, if you lose hope you become apathetic and do nothing. Above all, I want you to think about the fact that we are part when we're on planet Earth. We are part of Mother Nature, we depend on mother nature for clean air, for water, for food, for clothing for everything. And as we destroy one ecosystem after another, As we create worse climate change, worse loss of diversity. We have to do everything in our power to make the world a better place for the children alive today and for those that will follow.
You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. There is a future for you. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth that I look down upon from where I am now. God bless you all.”
Watch the Netflix documentary, where Jane Goodall offers her final, unedited public thoughts. (55 min)
🌸 A Powerful Read 📚 | Do You Receive The Red Hand Files?
This last one sent, Issue #337, is “robust,” as my dear friend said. And it is. When things come my way via a few unrelated sources, I pay attention—this is such an offering. Nick Cave is asked the question, “Where do you…stand?”
Give it a read because, in truth, I cannot do it justice; it is exquisitely written. It’s a read that you will reread and send on to those you love who, like him, “stand with the world, in its goodness and beauty.”
Some shimmers that sang a yes, yes! into my heart:
He has a “devotional nature.”
Sees the world as "broken but beautiful."
As a musician, songwriter, and letter writer, he "actively serves the soul of the world" by speaking to its "grieving and broken nature."
He feels we have been “placed on this earth for a reason – to magnify, as best we can, that which is beautiful and true.”
We have “urgent and moral duty to repair it where we can and not to cause further harm.”
"In these embattled times, I call to the world's soul... I sing to it, praise it, encourage it, and strive to improve it—in adoration, reconciliation, and leaping faith."
– Nick Cave
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🌸 Closing Song 🎶 | Falling in Love With Carrie Tree’s Music
“MUSIC to feed THE HEART”
This song came along my Spotify—picked for you—"Call to the Wind," and I fell in, something hauntingly simple, inviting and beautiful. I started listening to Carrie Tree’s music and found another gem, her song "Human Kindness."
You'll fall in love with her wide tender voice, her "honesty and devoted love for this earth and all within it," which touches a deep place, speaks into the heart.
“…Yes I’m seeking your kindness
I’m longing for safely
I'm praying for home
I’m craving compassion
Searching for meaning
And I feel so alone
I’ve been stripped to the bone.”
🎶 Listen to Human Kindess here on YouTube Here (5:12 min)
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🌸 In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you rally your roar for the beauty and goodness
of this precious planet of ours.
May you open your tears, feel every salty drop—
this is the path to all hearts.
May you be sheltered, safe, and protected.
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
🌸 Share the Light!
If this Metta Newsletter gave your heart a jolt of goodness, a beauty boost, please
help spread this tender kindness and care out into the world. Share the Metta Letters with a friend.
Oh, It is a hard ask– Small donations help me to continue this loving offering, Metta Newsletter bloom (I am a one-woman show) 🌸 click here Venmo
✨ may we bloom more Light.
💞 may we grow more Goodness for the healing of all.
🌎 may each of us stitch more heart-tenderness into the fabric of our planet.
….Until next week. 💖 ✨
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
- Mary Oliver
Website: https://www.wininimrod.com/
